What Do You Believe? Catholics

What Do You Believe? Catholicism

Introduction

A. Today we are finishing our series called “What do you believe?” We

have been talking about some of the major false religions that we are

faced with today such as Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons, Scientology and

Islam and why Christianity is different from them. Many Christians today

are confused about what they believe. They are not sure if other

religions are okay or if they are the same as Christianity. Many

Christians have bought into the lie that there are many ways to God and

Christianity is just another one of those ways.

B. We have been using what I am calling the three S’s as a way of

determining whether a religion is true or false. They stand for Savior,

Salvation, and Scripture. All false religions differ from the Christian

view on these three major issues.

1. Savior: All false religions change who Jesus really was. They do not

believe that He is the ‘only way’ to heaven. Usually they follow

another prophet or holy man who is considered as good as Jesus.

2. Salvation: All false religions teach that a person must ‘earn’ their

way to heaven. They don’t believe we are saved by grace, God’s gift.

3. Scripture: All false religions teach that the Bible

is ‘incomplete/outdated’ and there are ‘other’ holy books which

are ‘more’ important.

C. Today we are going to talk about Catholicism.

A. Just a little comedy about the Catholic practice of confessing their

sins to the priest. I grew up a devout Catholic, confessed my sins to a

priest for many years. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten

through eighth grade. I am not here today to “Catholic bash” just as I

did not intend to Mormon bash, or JW bash. My intention today is to help

you get a better understanding of what Catholics believe. There is a lot

of confusion about the Catholic Church. Although it is a very large

church claiming over one billion followers, when we pray the Apostle’s

creed, originally written between 100 to 200 AD, and we come to the part

that says, “We believe in one, holy, catholic, apostolic church.” We are

not saying we agree with the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic means

universal believers, united. We are saying we believe in the Church

worldwide. We have discussed changing the wording, but then it would not

be the Apostle’s Creed. It would be the ‘Vineyard creed.’

History of Roman Catholic Church

A. The Catholic Church claims to trace its beginnings all the way to

Peter when Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church.” But the

truth is Roman Catholicism as we know it today started as an association

of churches around 300 AD.

B. At that time there were literally hundreds, even thousands of

Christian churches all over the world. Christianity was spreading in

Europe and in Asia. There was no official organization of churches. They

just called themselves Christian churches. Each church was autonomous,

meaning independent. What really kept them together was an agreement on

the Apostle’s creed. There were no associations with area overseers or

bishops over groups of churches.

C. Around 300 AD, Constantine, who was the ruler in Rome, was going out

to battle and just as he did, he claims he saw a vision of the cross of

Jesus Christ. He instantly converted to Christianity, had the cross

painted on all the shields and commanded all of his men to become

Christians. They won that battle and when Constantine came back to Rome,

he decided that Christianity was going to become the religion of the

state. Whereas in previous years Christians had been persecuted, fed to

lions, burned at the stake and thrown into prison as enemies of the

state. Now Christianity was mandated, everyone was told to convert to

Christianity.

D. As a result the Christian Church in Rome became the largest church in

the world. It also became the richest church in the world, as

Constantine gave it all the land and buildings that had been used by the

pagans as temples. With all this wealth and power came corruption. The

Church of Rome, encouraged by Constantine, declared itself the leader of

all Christianity and began organizing all the churches around the world

to join up with them. Some churches joined, many did not, and this

started the Roman Catholic Church.

How does Catholicism differ from Biblical Christianity?

A. As we have been using the three S’s, let see how Catholics measure up

with these.

B. Savior

Catholics teach the same things about Jesus that the Bible teaches. This

is what separates the Catholic Church from the other false religions

that we have covered, such as Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Islam and